The present invention relates to a passenger conveyer system such as an escalator, a moving walkway, or the like, in particular, to a passenger conveyer system for a long moving distance.
An escalator that is an example of the passenger conveyer system comprises a plurality of footsteps, each of which is provided with guide rollers in the front and the rear thereof. The plurality of footsteps is supported by engaging each of their guide rollers with a footstep guide rail provided in a structure. The footsteps move in a horizontal direction around the way in and the way out while keeping level, and move in an upward or a downward direction inclined at an angle of about thirty degrees on the way between the way in and the way out.
In general, the plurality of footsteps is connected to one another by means of a chain, and all the footsteps are moved continuously in synchronization with one another by driving the chain.
A driving unit that drives the chain employs a type of device that drives an end of the chain by means of a sprocket. The driving unit is provided around the way in or the way out. However, in regard to an escalator employing high footsteps, the load imposed on the chain is too large. Therefore, a sufficient driving force may not be transmitted by only driving the end of the chain in some cases. Such a problem is not limited to the escalator, but is a common one to passenger conveyer systems of long moving distances on the whole.
An object of the present invention is to provide a passenger conveyer system that is capable of applying sufficient driving force in the middle section of the chain and suitable for an escalator of high footsteps, a walkway of long moving distance, or the like.
To achieve the above object, a passenger conveyer system according to the invention comprises:
a footstep guide rail provided in a structure;
a plurality of footsteps which move along the footstep guide rail;
a chain which connects the plurality of footsteps with one another in an endless circular manner; and
a trochoid mechanism having a rocking unit, the mechanism including pin rollers which relatively drive linearly in accordance with the rock of the rocking unit and a trochoid tooth-shaped section which meshes with the pin rollers, the pin rollers and the trochoid tooth-shaped section disposed between the chain and the rocking unit.
In the passenger conveyer system according to the invention, the trochoid tooth-shaped section and the pin rollers move linearly at uniform velocity by one pitch of the pin rollers, and the footsteps can be moved forward accordingly through the chain. In such a mechanism, the mechanism, which drives by means of a chain, in itself has a function as a decelerator, which can combine two mechanism elements, such as a decelerator indispensable to a conventional driving mechanism and a chain driving transmission mechanism, into one driving mechanism.